Abdul El-Sayed’s Silence on Policing Views

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has not clarified his stance on the “defund the police” movement or why he removed previous social media remarks supporting it.

In November, it was alleged that he deleted several posts from 2020 and 2021 that endorsed calls to defund police budgets. One post, shared in June 2020, a few weeks after George Floyd’s death, stated, “Most major U.S. cities spend too much on police departments to fight poverty, but too little on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, and housing to end poverty. Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about.”

Recently, El-Sayed faced questions about these posts during an interview with CNN. When asked why they were taken down, he chose to elaborate on his vision for public safety instead. “I think we all want to be safe. We want to know that we can go home safely. We don’t want to worry about being the victim of someone’s violence, whether it’s from a neighbor or from the state itself,” he remarked.

He continued, acknowledging that security investments are crucial. “For too long, we haven’t invested in the kind of recruitment and retention that makes people in our local communities want to participate in maintaining public safety. But also, our answer to many issues has often been a person with a gun.”

El-Sayed later stated he supports “community violence intervention,” urging people to look forward rather than dwell on past actions without addressing why he deleted his earlier posts.

When pressed by CNN’s Caitlan Collins about whether his beliefs have evolved, he dodged the question once more. “Back then I was a professor. Now I’m running for the U.S. Senate, and I deeply understand that we all have to come together to reflect on the past. But we need to invest in what’s right,” he explained.

He agreed that there should be more investment in law enforcement but stressed the importance of public health for achieving genuine safety.

El-Sayed is also facing scrutiny regarding allegations of anti-Semitism, which arose from his prior comments and his association with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, known for his controversial views. In a recent discussion, he noted, “Yes, when you kill tens of thousands of people, you become pretty evil. It’s not about comparing evils, it’s Hamas: evil, the Israeli government: evil. You could say both.”